


The Quickest Way To A Man's Heart (Is Through His Ribcage)

by Dukeofnachos



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Don't worry about the relationships thing there is no love triangle, F/M, Gai Is A Good Friend, Ino Is A Good Friend, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Sasuke Comes Back, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, Soulmates, also why doesn't kakashi's mom have a canon name, there aren't enough non-highschool/college aus for naruto
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-12-16
Updated: 2017-01-23
Packaged: 2018-03-01 16:44:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 7,410
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2780378
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dukeofnachos/pseuds/Dukeofnachos
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When both you and your soulmate turn 18, a mark will appear on your skin. It's designed to lead you to them. You meet, you kiss, you fall in love, ect.<br/>That's a fairy tale that Kakashi doesn't have the patience to believe in. He doesn't have a mark, and he's not going to get one any time soon. He doesn't care, really. He's a blank and that's all there is to it. It's not the end of the world. He doesn't need some cosmic tattoo to be happy.<br/>Sakura knows her soulmate is out there, just waiting for her to find them. She can feel it. True love is right around the corner. More specifically, her 18th is just around the corner. All the rookie nine are in the village for it, even Sasuke. Sasuke, who is still 17. Sakura must be the only person in the world who doesn't want their mark to show up..<br/>Of course, then her bithday actually comes, and everything just goes to crap.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Hatake Family

**Author's Note:**

> Look up in the sky! It's a bird! It's a plane! It's someone who has no business starting a new fic doing so anyway!  
> But yeah. I've got the concept in my head, I've got incentive to finish, and I'm not posting new chapters until I have the one that comes after them finished. I can do this.  
> And feel free to bug me on tumblr if I try to act like I can't. Same name and everything. Dukeofnachos.tumblr.com

This was how it worked. Some people got big marks that were less detailed, and others got smaller ones that were very detailed, and some how those marks would help you find your soulmate.

Kakashi didn’t remember much about his mother, Misaki, but he remembered that her mark was one of the smaller ones. She would brush his hair out of his face with her right hand and her mark would be right there in front of his face, just on the underside of her wrist. Kakashi liked to see how fast he could catalogue which parts of it meant what about his father. The head of a wolf with a leaf on it’s head and a kunai in it’s mouth. It even had shading, which was rare. It was beautiful, and he remembered that she wore it proudly.

He also remembered the way his father would smile whenever he saw it. Sakumo Hatake wasn't an unhappy man, then. Not then, before missions and sickness took so much of them both. Back then, his smiles were not exactly rare. But nothing ever made him smile the way he did when he saw the mark on Misaki's wrist. Misaki smiled when she looked at it too. And because it made his parents so happy, Kakashi smiled at it as well.

"I knew right away that your mom's mark was meant for me." Sakumo told him one night, while they sat in their living room and waited for his mom to come back from her mission. “As soon as I laid eyes on it, I knew mine was meant for her, too.”

“Really?” Kakashi had asked quietly, because even back then he did everything quietly.

“Mm-hm.” His father nodded and kissed his forehead. “Didn’t have a clue what any of it meant though.” Kakashi giggled. “But I knew I wanted to marry her and get a house and have you.” Sakumo looked thoughtful for a moment, closing his eyes and resting his chin between his thumb and his pointer finger. “And maybe another kid.”

“No!” Kakashi laughed. “Babies are gross.”

“Oh, really?” Sakumo grinned. He poked Kakashi's stomach. "But you were a baby once."

Kakashi crossed his arms. "I was a gross baby." He pouted and then yawned, and Sakumo laughed again, because he couldn’t stop himself from laughing when he spent time with his son.

They heard the sound of a window opening. Sakumo tensed for just a bit before relaxing completely. Misaki's warm voice drifted into the room.“What are you two doing up this late?”

Sakumo laughed nervously and scratched the back of his head. That was the one thing Kakashi remembered most about his father. When it was just them, an order from the gods themselves wouldn’t have been enough to keep him from laughing. He was a great big ball of sunshine when he had his family with him. Sakumo could light up a room with a smile and Kakashi had always loved that about his father.

"Waiting on you." Sakumo returned and when he turned his head, Kakashi could see the top of his mark on the back of his neck. He rarely saw his father’s mark. Even in when the man had his shirt off, it was way too high for him to get a peek. Still, he remembered the white and gold sword and the blue sun that surrounded it. It was just shapes and outlines, but it was beautiful nonetheless. “What are you doing coming in through the window?”

She stretched and took off her jonin vest. “Doors are for people with no imagination.” Sakumo tried to look annoyed, but the face he made only made her laugh, which made him laugh. “You two shouldn’t have waited on me. You know he has school in the morning.” Misaki said, though her voice was more affectionate than disapproving. She slid into the living room and sat on the other side of Kakashi. He leaned over on her. “I’m gonna put you to bed in a few minutes, okay?” She told her son, more than asked.

“M’kay,” He yawned. One of his hands grabbing the sleeve of her shirt, he nodded off as his parents talked over his head. The sound of his father’s laughter and his mother’s affectionate teasing followed him into his dreams.

He wondered for just a moment, the way little kids often wonder about the future, if he and his soulmate could have something like this.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Seriously, the lack of Soul Mate AUs or A/B/O AUs or BDSM AUs or whatever else AUs is kind of annoying. I mean, there are thing you can do outside of Highschool AUs, even when the main characters are young. So, in an effort to satisfy my brain and get some variety up in here, I'm doing this.  
> Soo, yeah. That's a thing. We're going to do this. I'll update bi-weekly, probably, and feel free to swing by my tumblr and bug me if I miss an update. I might be swamped with school or overwhelmed by life, but there's just as big a chance that I'm just being lazy.


	2. Not Quite Yet

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kakashi's 18th Birthday.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> NO ONE REMINDED ME IM SO SORRY HOLY SHIT

Kakashi spent the night before his eighteenth birthday alone. Normally, it was spent with family or friends. Someone to sit and speculate with you. Or someone to help you look for a mark in all those hard to reach places. Seriously, they could show up anywhere. It was something that could determine the rest of your life. It was only natural that someone spend it with you.

Everyone who could have waited with him was dead.

Except for Gai. Gai would have waited with him, had he gotten back from his mission on time. Gai would have loved to wait with him, and he wouldn’t have minded letting Gai see every part of him. Even that weird birthmark he had on his butt that looked kind of like a small hand print. He was sensitive about that, y’know? Gai would have made it okay, though. Gai wouldn’t make fun of him even if he did think it was weird, because Gai didn’t have a mean bone in his body. They would have laughed and he would have made Gai blush and maybe they could have done some stupid challenge. Kakashi could have used a stupid challenge right about then. Instead, he was in his bedroom in his dreary little apartment. There were no laughs or smiles. There was just him, with the lights off, watching time tick by. 11:41. 11:42. 11:43. He briefly managed to doze in hopes that twelve would arrive sooner. It was 11:47 when he opened his eyes again, and he could not fall back to sleep for the life of him. He didn’t want to miss the arrival of his mark. He wondered, idly, what it would feel like when his mark appeared. Would it feel like a paint brush against his skin? Or maybe a brand pressing outward from the inside? Would he even feel it?

God, the anticipation was killing him. He ran a hand through messy silver hair and pulled down his mask so that he could breath. He went to the kitchen and made himself a glass of water, and then promptly forgot it when he went back in his room. He flopped down on the bed and made whiny noise that his ninken would have been proud of. He sighed and brushed his hair out of his face and tried to think of something, anything to pass the time. Then he suddenly sat up. He grabbed a little orange novel from his nightstand. Jiraiya had given it to him as an early birthday present. Signed it and everything. He managed the first page and could even admit that had he been in the mind to settle down and read, he would have loved it, but he couldn’t make his eyes focus on the words. He would follow along and turn the pages, but then realize that he stopped reading about five pages ago. Still, he tried and managed to make it through the first chapter without learning the main character’s name. However, it seemed to have distracted him long enough, because when he looked at the clock, it was 11:58.

Well, now he couldn't quite look away, now could he? He watched the second hand go halfway round the clock, and began to idly hum to himself. The theme to some children’s cartoon he’d seen. He didn't know what. But it was happy and bouncy and trying to remember where it was from made him feel less ridiculous than silently burning holes into the clock.

And then impossibly, it was midnight. The clocks chimed to tell him so. Yes, clocks, plural. The one on his bedroom wall, the one in his living room, and every single clock he’d been given by his friends and even the Third Hokage. As if he weren't going to pay attention to the time. And surrounded by the sound of clocks competing for who could wake the neighbors first, he froze. 

Freezing is a very natural thing to do at a time like this. When you could possibly be pointed in the direction of your other half as determined by the universe, or the gods, or wherever you wanted to believe this came from. Maybe it’s determined by a secret society of lizard people (and according to Genma’s older brother, that’s exactly what it is). Whatever. The point is that this could define your entire life. Because not only were you destined for your soul mate, the universe had to lead you there. And lead it would. It was possible for Soul Mates to be born on opposite sides of the planet and meet up because of a hunch.

He stood quickly and tore off his clothes, throwing them aside carelessly as he rushed into the bathroom to check himself over. His pants swinging lazily from the ceiling fan, he closed the door so that he could look at the full length mirror on the back of it. There was nothing immediately obvious to him, so he looked closer. He checked his shoulders and the soles of his feet, He turned around and checked his back and pulled a very impressive maneuver with the mirror over the sink to check the back of his neck. He checked his legs and was confident that he wouldn't have to go any higher, but he did anyway, just for some piece of mind.

Nothing.

There was nothing on him. Anywhere.

Kakashi went to bed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'll try to keep up on updates from now on.


	3. A Last Look

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kakashi holds on.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I missed a bunch of updates because I'm actual trash.  
> This one might move a little fast, and I'm sorry if it does, but the next chapter will have Sakura. I'm really exited about that.

Kakashi spent the actual day of his birthday curled in a ball and staring into space until sunset. He wasn’t sure what he’d expected, but he’d expected something. Anything, really. Any kind of mark would have been good. Once the sun went down, however, he didn’t have time to dwell on it much, because Gai barged into his apartment. Kakashi would admit, he’d never enjoyed the sound of his door slamming open so much. 

“My eternal rival!” Gai boomed. “Get dressed! Genma is throwing you a party!”

“Wrong. Genma is having a party that just happened to be today.” Kakashi replied. He hoped that he looked like he’d been sleeping and not like he’d been a sentence away from bawling like a little kid. “I’m too tired for something like that.”

He was also very happy that Gai was home, but he didn't say that. He was eighteen and Gai was nineteen and neither of them had marks. That was enough to tell him that it wasn't going to work. He was quietly disappointed in a way that he didn’t understand. He’d known that whatever force controlled the marks would never be stupid enough to bind a ball of sunshine and enthusiasm like Gai to someone who killed everything he touched. But he’d hoped. Oh, he’d hoped and hoped and in the end it all fell and melted into a puddle at his feet. It mixed itself with the disappointment of not getting his mark and became a weight at the back of his throat that he would carry for years. But he could deal with it. After all, nothing was really wrong, right? Gai was not his soulmate, but whoever it was had to be out there. They were just younger. That was fine. And if it wasn’t, Kakashi pretended that it was. 

In the meantime, Gai would be there. He could handle that.

So Kakashi learned to deal as Gai dragged him along, palms hot against Kakashi’s wrists. He could deal with not having Gai, and he could deal with not having a mark, because they were out there. He knew it. So he breathed around the lump in his throat and kept breathing.

__##

Kakashi didn't have too many friends, but the ones he did have loved to drink and party. Of course, that didn’t mean they were using his birthday as an excuse to drink and party. They didn’t need an excuse for it. They just got wasted and fucked around a lot. The reasons came and went. Such was life for these shinobi, who had been to war much too early and became kids much too late.

It was, however, an opportunity for all of them to try and cheer him up in their own ways. It was good to have friends, even drunken ones, that wanted him to be happy. And he was certain that at least half the people there could be considered his friend. Gai was the only one he really trusted, mind you, but the others were his friends too.

“Don’t worry about it!” Asuma said, wrapping an arm around him. “I didn’t get my mark on my birthday either.” Asuma had a way of lighting up a room. It was like when the sun shined just enough to keep the cold away. Kakashi didn’t trust Asuma, but he felt bad about it, y’know? He wanted to trust Asuma. He knew damn well that he could. But he didn’t, and Asuma knew that and went to the trouble of trying to cheer him up anyway. Asuma was nice. “Lots of people don’t.”

Kakashi thought he would have felt much more reassured by that if it weren’t for the fact that Asuma’s mark was on his arm and Kakashi could look from it to Kurenai’s answering mark across the room.

Kakashi was about to tell him as much when he suddenly found himself being held by Genma. “You’re just gonna bum him out, Sarutobi.” Genma quipped as he pet Kakashi’s hair like he was a cat instead of a jonin. Kakashi would have protested, but it felt nice and Genma would have only laughed at him anyway. Kakashi trusted Genma much less than he trusted Asuma, and usually he didn't feel bad about that at all, because Genma was kind of a dick.

“And you’re gonna choke on that senbon if you're not careful, Shiranui." Asuma retorted playfully, stealing Kakashi back with a quick tug.

"Like hell I am," Genma said quickly, because he was very sensitive about people questioning his abilities. "I know what I'm doing."

"I never said you'd do it on your own." Asuma grinned, and he handed Kakashi to Gai so he could continue their banter.. Kakashi couldn’t lie; he felt like a little kid, being passed around like this. But the affectionate fighting over him felt nice. It was business as usual, really. At the age of 18, Kakashi had yet to hit that surprise growth spurt that left him towering over everyone. He was small and apparently cute, and that earned him the honor of being the group’s younger sibling, to be passed around coddled whenever he was in a good enough mood to let them.

He would admit, he needed this right now.

\--

For all intents and purposes, no one is legally a blank until they turn 28. The reason for this is that it’s rare for the age difference between Soul Mates to be more than 10 years. Even when you’re just filling out forms, most things require at least ten years without a mark before they’ll accept you as a blank. Anbu only needs 3.

Kakashi has himself declared a blank at 21.

Anbu will only allow blanks, that is, people without soul mates. It’s said that blanks are the way they are because they were meant to die young. Or because their Soul Mate died young. Kakashi does his best not to dwell on either option. Instead, he focuses on the freedom that Anbu offers. And he joins. Officially. Unofficially he joins when he’s 13, during that short period when Rin was dead and Minato was not. He’d been planning to quit the day his mark showed up really. So he waited. And then his 18th birthday came and went with no mark. Then his 19th. 20th. 21st. His soul mate could still be out there, he knows. But when he’s 21 he gets the Anbu tattoo, and that makes it official. Anbu tattoos are special, because they mean something. They mean that the wearer does not have a Soul Mate and doesn’t want or need one. Anbu is their home and that is enough for them. And to other Anbu, it tells them that whoever’s skin bears this mark is just like them. Without a Soul Mate and without the desire for one.

Logically, Kakashi knew that the fact that he didn't get a mark on his birthday didn't mean he didn’t have a soulmate. One of them had to be older than the other, and it may as well have been him. Not having his mark show up on his birthday is not the end of the world. It doesn't mean that there isn't someone out there for him. He's just a bit older than they are. Nothing wrong with that. But Anbu has been a home for him that he’s not quite ready to leave behind. He swears that he will quit the day that his mark appears. Once he knows that someone is out there for him, he will leave. And in the meantime, he’ll take everything Anbu can throw at him. So once again, he plays the waiting game. The difference is that this time, it takes years instead of minutes.

He takes the hard missions. The dangerous ones. The ones that leave him with his arms barely attached to the rest of him. The missions that make the eye Obito gave him burn until he wants to claw it out. In between missions, all his time not spent sleeping or at the memorial is spent with Gai and Genma. They both have marks now, but they don’t ask Kakashi about his, and he doesn’t tell them. Asuma and Kurenai drift in and out of his awareness. They’re too affectionate with each other for him to be around them for long.

After he breaks his leg in several places and walks back to Konoha anyway, they give him a psych eval. He passes it, if only because he’d slept with the woman who’d given it. They give him a partner. Tenzou. He’s a nice enough man. He doesn’t have a mark. Kakashi knows, because they check each other over. Thoroughly.

(Gai would be horrified if he knew Kakashi wasn’t saving himself for his Soul Mate. Kakashi would never have the heart to tell him that he’d lost his virginity to Anko when they were 19. And again to Genma the week after.)

(They’d noticed Genma’s mark the morning after that.)

After a few missions together, Tenzou admits that their partnership has been a test. A better chance to check up on his mental state. Kakashi expected as much from someone else in Anbu, so he isn’t surprised at Tenzou. What is surprising is the fact that Tenzou tells him, and the fact that he genuinely looks sorry. Kakashi decides that he will trust Tenzou in the way that he trusts Asuma, in that he will not trust Tenzou, but he will feel bad about it. He gets kicked out of Anbu a few days after their last mission together. He doesn’t protest. He loves Anbu, and he wants to stay. But if Tenzou says he needs to leave, he will.

The Third Hokage takes the oppurtunity to throw him a genin team. Apparently, Kakashi has “a lot of things to teach the younger generation” and “a responsibility to pass on some of his knowledge”. Whatever. So he ends up saddled with three twelve year olds. He fails the first team out of spite. The second, too. The third genuinely isn’t ready. The fourth pisses him off. So on and so forth on into eternity. Or more accurately, on until he’s twenty-six. That’s when they give him a team that he can’t fail.

They give him the Uchiha boy, who he has to train because he’s the only one around with a Sharingan (None of it is guilt over Obito. Except most of it is.) They give him the jinchuuriki, who looks so much like his father (Kakashi wonders, if Minato were still alive, would the boy call him Ni-san?). And they give him the girl with pink hair, the one who loves the brooding boy, the one who can’t protect herself (Maybe she can. Maybe she would learn, if he would let her. But she reminds him of Rin. He can’t let anything happen to her.).  
He does with them the only thing that he can. They pass.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> On the bright side this still updates quicker than anything I did on FF.net, so you win some, you lose some.


	4. A request

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sakura and her parents have a talk about her future. And by that I mean they argue.

“I want to be a ninja when I grow up.” Sakura tells her parents a few days after she turns six. She talks slowly to make sure every word comes out right. She wants to be a ninja now, really. But she thinks she might have to wait a little while for that. “Can you sign me up for the academy?”

“Of course, dear.” Her father says. He flinches when he hears her mother stop washing dishes for a moment. “I mean,” he starts, and Sakura is already feeling a little disappointed, because she knows where this is going by now. “Ask your mother.”

“No.” Her mother said without being asked.

Sakura pouts. “But-”

“No, Sakura.” Her mother says firmly. “We are not a ninja clan. We are civilians.”  She looked back over her shoulder in Sakura’s direction. “You don’t want to be involved in that nasty business, anyway. You might scare away your Soul Mate.”

“Nuh-uh!” Sakura says, shaking her head. “You said my Soul Mate would love me no matter what!”

“Not if you’re a ninja.” Her mother replies, and she goes back to washing dishes.

Sakura makes a face like she’s about to cry. Her father nearly starts to console her, but the famous Haruno temper stops him in his tracks. “You don’t know that! My Soul Mate could be a ninja too!” She jumps up from the table and stomps her foot hard enough to shake everything on it. “You might be keeping us apart!”

And with that, she stormed up to her bedroom.

Her father was surprised, but he laughed it off. “She really is advanced for her age. Six years old and already throwing tantrums like a teenager.”

Her mother wasn’t nearly so amused. “Did you hear her?  She wants to be a ninja! She wants to risk her life for a paycheck!”

“I don’t think they do that much in the academy.” He added mildly. Her mother paused.

She narrowed her eyes at him. “Are you _defending_ her?”

He shook his head and held his hands up in surrender. “No. But could entering her into the academy really hurt? It’s free after all, and we can pull her out if we want.”

She sighed and dropped the last plate back into the dishwater. She dried her hands on a paper towel. “Well, a lot of civilian kids do end up dropping out for one reason or another.” She sat down in the chair next to her husband and leaned into him, absentmindedly touching the mark on her own thigh. “But what if she’s right and her Soul Mate is a ninja?”

He smiled and kissed the top of her head. “Then her Soul Mate will be a ninja. They'll meet whether we enroll her or not.”

He was right, she supposed, but she couldn't help but wonder. What kind of person was meant to be with their little girl?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello friends i am here.  
> I'm very sorry about how long this has taken, but you know, life. Here's a Sakura thing though.


	5. Meant to Be

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The one where they're genin.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HOLY CHEESENUTS I'M LATE  
> HERE'S THE NEXT THING  
> I think the next two or three are going to be about Team 7 as Genins, possibly with Kakashi's sad love life in the background. On the bright side I have a plan. Kind of. Maybe. I have the basic outline of what might be a plan at some point in the future. So, um. Hooray.

Sakura is twelve when she decides that Sasuke is her Soul Mate. She’s by no means unique in this. Half their class seems to have decided that he was the best thing since sliced bread. But none of them get put onto a team with him. Obviously, that means she’s right and all of them are dead wrong. Of course, Naruto seems to think that it means she’s meant for him, and that’s just not true. Her Soul Mate couldn’t possibly be someone who irritates her as much as he does. She makes this point clear to him several times as they wait for their genin sensei.

And wait.

And wait.

And wait.

It starts to feel like her hair will be grey before this their teacher gets here. It’s ridiculous. What kind of jonin is late for something like this? Maybe if they’re lucky they’ll get someone else altogether. Or maybe, the more charitable part of her thinks, they’ve gotten caught up in important jonin things. Like a special mission from the Hokage. Whoever they are, they had better be cool enough to make up for being hours late like this.

She amuses herself by imagining what their sensei might be like. Would they be cool? Would they have a soul mate? What if it was a beautiful woman with long flowing hair? Or a cool guy with lots of scars who could break trees with his bare hands? Maybe it would be someone who wasn’t really either that knew all kinds of cool jutsu to teach them.

And as Sakura went on constructing a picture of their new sensei, Naruto put the eraser in the door.

(It’s important to know that it’s “the” eraser and not “an” eraser, because everyone in the room would remember it for the rest of their lives. Ten years later, Naruto wants the thing in a trophy case, and Sakura’s tempted to indulge him.)

"Hey! What are you doing?” She exclaimed. It seemed Naruto was always getting into some kind of trouble. She wasn’t sure she wanted him around if all he was going to do was cause mischief and get between her and Sasuke. Then again, she just didn’t want him around, let alone on the same team as her. How he’d even graduated in the first place was a mystery for the ages. She jumped up and stomped over to him, hands on her hips. “Naruto!”

Naruto didn’t listen to her any more than he listened to anyone else. He wedged the eraser in the door with a grin before he responded. “That’s what he gets for coming late!” He said, jumping down from the stepladder he’d used. “Surprise!”

Sakura scoffed. “You’re asking for trouble.” She flipped her hair just a bit, the way she saw her mother do when she was chewing someone out. “You know you shouldn’t do this.” But even as she scolded him, she inwardly cheered. She acted above it all for Sasuke’s benefit, so that he would see how cool and mature she was. The truth was that she loved childish pranks like this. Her parents expected so much out of her because of how smart she was. It was nice to just relax and trick some poor fool into a trap. The best part of her prank was that she was never caught. No one ever suspected her. They all blamed Naruto or Kiba. Never goody-two-shoes Sakura-chan.

“Hn.” Sasuke intoned, and Sakura immediately turned her attention to him. Any thoughts of little pranks of her own were forgotten. “Our teacher is a jonin. An elite ninja. You really think he’d fall for that?”

Ah, Sasuke was so cool! “Yeah, Sasuke’s right!” Sakura agreed without even thinking about it. It was too bad. She was thinking about setting up something herself, but if Sasuke said it wouldn’t work, then it wouldn’t work. Obviously. “You’re so clueless, Naruto!”

And at the tail end of her sentence, their sensei arrived. Naruto chuckled (Or giggled. It was hard to tell when she didn’t care.). He stepped through the door and for a split second, she thought he would dodge. He would bat it out of the way. He would do something. But no. He didn’t. He didn’t do anything. He just stepped through the door and the eraser plopped onto his head.

Sakura tried to apologize. It wasn’t normally her thing, but this was her first impression on her genin sensei. She didn’t want him to think she was a troublemaker like Naruto. Of course, she wasn’t sure how much of her apology he could hear over Naruto’ s idiotic laughter. She glanced over at Sasuke to see if he would come to her aid. Sasuke was just glaring at their sensei the way he glared at everything else. They were going to have to figure out a way to communicate without words. Sakura wasn’t worried about it, though. They were, after all, meant to be.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Also, just a side note. I think writing bratty Sakura gave me heartburn. Or maybe writing Sakura with a thing for Sasuke gave me heartburn.


	6. Things will get done. Probably.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Guess who wrote this actual months ago and thought they posted it but actually didn't? Meeeeeeeeeee
> 
> im so sorry don't hurt me
> 
> I'm like Arin Hanson. 99% of the time when I say I got something I don't got it.

Sakura stared at the strange man that she would have to call Sensei. He didn’t look like much. In fact, his limbs looked too long for him and his hair looked like it hadn’t been combed since _he_ was in the academy. The weird mask didn’t help much either. In fact, the only parts of his skin that were showing were his eye and his fingers. That seemed stupid. After all, how would his soul mate see his mark if he covered everything up? And on top of all that, he _smelled_ . Like _dogs_. Between this guy and Naruto, she could tell that being on this team would be just peachy. Oh well. At least she would always have Sasuke. That was something.

“Introduce ourselves?” Sakura repeated, not without a little distaste. When their sensei looked at her expectantly, she stumbled to find a way to continue. “Well, what are we supposed to say?”

He made some kind of face at that, but she couldn’t tell with that mask in the way. But the rest of him looked irritated, she guessed. Or maybe he’d already been irritated. Maybe irritated was his default state. But his one uncovered eye stared at her like she was barely worth his breath. “Things you like. Things you dislike. Dreams for the future. What you think your soulmate’s like. Things like that.”

“Why don’t you tell us stuff first?” Naruto interjected. When that cold eye’s gaze turned to him instead, she internally thanked him before a little jolt of fear shot through her. Naruto had come to her rescue instead of Sasuke. What if…? No. It was just a fluke. There was no way she was Naruto’s soulmate. Sasuke would learn to come to her rescue eventually. Naruto was just trying too hard because he thought they were soul mates. “ I mean, before we talk, tell us about you so we can see how it’s supposed to work.”

“Me?” Kakashi sighed, as if talking about himself would take a great deal of effort. In fact, he probably thought so. That would at least explain why he felt the need to tell them nothing at all. He skipped over his likes and dislikes and couldn’t have been more vague about his hobbies. “And my soul mate…” He continued boredly, and Sakura found herself paying a little more attention now. She wondered who could be unlucky enough to be destined for this guy? “I don’t have one.”

Oh. No one was. Well now she felt bad. Was that why he was so unkempt and bored? He didn’t have anyone to look good for? Jeez. Maybe he needed someone to look after him. Too bad she didn’t have time to do it. But aside from telling them that he was a blank…

“Well that was almost totally useless. All we really got was his name.” Sakura muttered, looking over at Naruto and Sasuke. Naruto agreed, a similar exasperated expression on her face. Sasuke seemed to silently agree. Probably. At least, she thought that was what the face he was making meant. See? They were getting better at communication already.

If Kakashi heard, and he probably had seeing as they were three feet in front of him, he didn’t care enough to comment on it. “How about you on the right first?”

Naruto straightened up and introduced himself loudly and obnoxiously. She couldn’t tell you why. It wasn’t like they would have trouble hearing him if he just talked like a normal person for once. Sakura did her best to ignore every word out of his mouth. It wasn’t anything she hadn’t heard before anyway. He wanted to be Hokage and he liked ramen. Blah blah blah. She got it. He talked about it all the time. “And I hope my soulmate is really pretty and nice, too.” He added with an even bigger grin. “We’re gonna have a whole bunch of kids, even if they’re a guy and we have to adopt the whole orphanage!”

Oh jeez, Sakura hoped not. The last thing this village needed was Naruto’s spawn running around and causing trouble. She knew she wouldn’t have wanted to be adopted by Naruto, and she didn’t think any of the kids in Konoha’s orphanage would go with him either. Their sensei didn’t seem phased, though.

“Alright. Next?” His lone eye trailed over to her again and she took that as her queue.

She introduced herself brightly, but she couldn’t really find the courage to say what she liked. She turned nearly as pink as her hair trying. Her dislikes however, were loud mouthed blonde haired blue eyed idiots. Like Naruto. Ino too, but she wasn’t here to hear it. “And, well, I hope my soulmate is someone cool and mysterious and really smart and strong. And I don’t want them to be a loudmouth like _Naruto_.” She finished, shooting the blonde a glare that would have had more strength if she hadn’t still been blushing from the thought of her soulmate. She looked pointedly at Sasuke. So pointedly that she didn’t notice Kakashi rolling his eye so hard it nearly popped out of his skull.

“Aw, c’mon Sakura! I can be cool and strong and stuff!” Naruto protested with a pout that she may have found cute if it weren’t attached to someone so annoying.

She folded her arms. “No way, Naruto! It’d take a million years for _you_ to be anywhere near _cool_  let alone strong.”

“Next.” Kakashi said before Naruto could argue further.

Sasuke’s turn was… interesting. Of course it was. It was Sasuke. He hated a lot of things. He didn’t really like anything. He sounded very… determined. Resolved. Wow, he was so cool!  “As far as soulmates are concerned, I don’t care. I’d rather not even have one. They’d just get in my way. I don’t need them.” Sakura could could nearly feel her heart breaking, but she kept it together. He would think differently once he learned that it was her that he was meant for. It didn’t matter that he couldn’t see it now. They had time to grow up, and when they did, he’d realize how great it was to be her soul mate. Even if she had to teach him.

She wouldn’t get in the way. Really, she wouldn’t. He’d like having her around. Eventually.

\-------

“Hmm. How can I put this?” Kakashi put his hand on his chin and pretended to think. He’d perfected that over the years, since he’d been surrounded by team after team of genin who never seemed to think at all. “My first impression of you is… you’re a bunch of idiots.” He told them, and he meant it.

The Uchiha was focused entirely on his struggles, acting more adult than he had any right to. If it wouldn't get him closer to avenging his clan, he didn't consider it worth his time. He acted emotionless and angry at the world. Kakashi knew that much from his file. But to see him there, acting at least twice as cold as any of the Uchiha clan had been… God, Kakashi hoped that their generation had a version of Gai. As soon as he found that kid he was going to staple them together. Seeing him sitting there reminded him of himself as a twelve-year-old, and if memory served, he’d been a colossal prick. He hoped Sasuke was different. He understood that the boy was hurting, really he did. He’d seen his entire family murdered by Itachi. Kakashi wasn’t going to compare his pain to that, but he knew the gist of it. And he knew that revenge wouldn’t help anyone. Killing Itachi wouldn’t bring anyone back. It wouldn’t make Sasuke feel better either. He needed to get that boy something else to focus on.

The girl wasn’t much better. She was from a civilian family for one. Kakashi had nothing against civilians, or ninja from civilian clans. The problem was formerly civilian genin. They thought the ninja world was all fun and games. They didn’t know, couldn’t expect the bloodshed. And they were so hard to train. She in particular seemed to be a kiss-up. If the nervous glances back at Sasuke meant anything, she was probably apart of his little fanclub, too. According to her file, she was smart, at least, but she wasn’t too good in a fight. Then again, were any of them? She worried too much about what others thought of her, but that much was always there in genin teams. They _were_ twelve, after all. But he hoped that all what she had to show now was a phase for both of their sakes. His because he didn’t want to have to deal with her pretending to be what she thought everyone else wanted. Hers because if she went the rest of her life like this it would be a very short one.

And then there was Naruto. Naruto, whose every move reminded him of what he’d lost. Naruto, looking up at him with Minato’s face, Kushina’s grin. Naruto with Obito’s pranks. Naruto, who unwittingly dredged up everything he’d tried to bury just by existing in the same room as him. And the boy was so _stupid_. Kakashi wouldn’t have been able to get Naruto’s grades if he’d been blind, dying, and actively trying. Just going by those, Naruto would have struggled to pour water out of a boot with the instructions on the heel. Although Kakashi didn’t put much stock in most of Naruto’s file, anyway. Half of it had been written by people blind with hatred, and the other half was written by Iruka, who loved Naruto too much to be objective. Even so, he was only twelve. He wasn’t that hard to figure out. He had his father’s perpetual kindness and his mother’s penchant for mischief.  He didn’t have anyone taking care of him. He was stupid, but nice enough.

Dealing with these three was going to be like pulling teeth, he could already tell.

The real problem was where their focus was. Sasuke was focused on revenge against the man who killed his family. That was a motivator to get stronger on it’s own. But it wasn't something he should focus on. Not at 12-years-old, when his voice had barely cracked. He wanted to become stronger than Itachi. That’s fine. But Kakashi could see a little too much of himself in the boy. Without another focus, Sasuke would going to run himself into the ground. Kakashi knew from experience. Maybe all he needed was for some loud idiot to proclaim themselves his rival. It wouldn't solve all his problems (god knows Kakashi still had them), but someone to distract from the hole left by loss might be good for him. Naruto had no focus. No guidance. He wanted to be Hokage, but he had no goals set between now and then. It’s as if he expected to one day simply wake up and be the perfect leader for Konoha. And Sakura, while book smart and familiar with theory, was far too focused on what Sasuke was doing and what he thought of her. She didn’t train, and her taijutsu was terrible. She had a lot of potential and it would end up being worthless if she couldn’t start doing things for herself instead of doing them to impress a boy who didn’t like anyone, least of all her. He hoped he’d have time to work on that.

What they needed most was guidance and motivation. Kakashi isn't sure he knows how to give them either of those. 

\-----

Team 7 did all the boring missions that Genin teams often do. They gardened, they fixed roofs, they found that same cat at least four times (honestly, someone should help that woman’s cat. Kakashi certainly wasn’t going to, but someone should.), and while it was monotonous, it gave them time to get used to being a team before leaving the village. Kakashi didn’t mind it all that much. After they got the gist of things, he could just sit back and read. The only downside to these missions were that they didn’t pay much and the majority of the money went to the kids.

It was an easy way to live.

It settled into the kind of monotony that would be easy to let drag on. Kakashi almost did. The only thing that stopped him was Naruto. Naruto just couldn’t let a good thing rest. He had to push, had to show everyone how great he was. Still, maybe he was right. There’s only so much skill you can gain from chasing a cat.

So they, as a team, went to see the Third for a mission. And that's how they met Tazuna, the bridge builder.

\-------

Inari's father wasn't his mother's soulmate. Kaiza was. She missed them both dearly.

Kakashi didn't know what that must have felt like. It must be a different pain than any he's ever experienced. Having a soulmate must hurt. He thought of his parents and wondered if the good outweighed the bad. For her sake, he hoped so.

\------

Haku died too young to have a soul mark, but there was no doubt in anyone’s mind that he and Zabuza were soulmates. People spoke that like it was a comfort. Kakashi wasn’t sure if that would have made this any better.

They buried them together. Kakashi planted Zabuza’s sword like a gravestone and felt something like relief that he didn't have a mark.

\-----

Returning from Mist, Kakashi has a few things on his mind. The first is that Naruto has a bridge named after him. Naruto. He doesn’t think anyone in the village will believe him if he tells them, and so he probably won’t bother. The second is one he had time to contemplate while waiting to recover. Gai has a team. He vaguely remembers seeing the little demons a while back, when Gai decided to show them off and Kakashi couldn’t say no. He’d made a big fuss when he held them back from the Chunin exams last year, punishing himself for them not being ready by doing laps around the village _backwards_. Kakashi wished he had half that energy. But the important part of Gai’s team is that Kakashi remembers seeing a boy with thick eyebrows and eyes filled with determination, and a smile that mirrored the one Kakashi had always admired.

One dull grey eye drifted over to Sasuke, and then to Naruto. Naruto was dumb, Kakashi knew, but he also seemed to be positivity incarnate. That would help Sasuke, but would it be enough? Maybe Kakashi didn’t need to interfere, but he was going to. And that had to mean something, didn’t it? Kakashi rarely did anything that he didn’t want or need to do. For him to actively pursue this meant that it was probably worth doing. Or maybe it wasn’t. Maybe he was projecting. But, he figured the worst case scenario was that Sasuke would end up with two ever-smiling faces following him around instead of one. Who knew? Maybe they’d end up being contagious rub off on him a little.

The thing is, Kakashi didn't sign up to be a teacher. He wanted nothing to do with today's youth, or passing down his knowledge or anything like that. He's never had a Genin team before. Kakashi has no idea what he's doing. But these kids? They're going to need him. He isn't entirely sure how to help them, how to give them the perspective they need to overcome the personal challenges they're facing. But he wants to, so he's sure he'll get there. Eventually. Maybe after a nap.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Good news! The fic isn't dead! Bad news! I'm the one writing it so who knows when it'll be updated, and also this probably was not worth the wait at all. And we did like 20 episodes in one chapter, which is neutral news.
> 
> Also, here's a random nsfw fact that I discovered while watching some Naruto stuff I hadn't seen in a while: Did you know it's canon that Shino's got a huge wiener? Because that's canon. It's actual canon, someone animated Naruto reacting to Shino's junk, this happened really for real. Believe it.


End file.
